A QUARTET of Sheldon School sixth form students are aiming to make the grade when they take on the rest of the country in the national finals of the English Schools’ Swimming Association Team Relay Championship.

Year 12 pupils George Claverley, Nathan Coupland and James Tucker, along with Year 13 student Owen Wilson, are heading to the London Aquatics Centre, the venue for the 2012 Olympic Games swimming competition, this Saturday as they go out in search of national glory in the 4x50m relay event.

The Sheldon team qualified for the finals as one of the representatives for the South West following their 12th-placed finish at the regional round at Millfield School, in Somerset, back in September.

The boys will be accompanied by teacher Zahid Mahmood, who is also a coach at Corsham Amateur Swimming Club, and he doesn’t expect the enormity of his pupils’ challenge to sink in until they lay eyes on the capital’s top swimming venue.

“I don’t think that what the boys realise just what a big achievement it is to be going and I don’t think it has quite sunk in yet. I took my daughter Safiya there a little while ago and the event and the facility is just huge,” said Mahmood.

“Swimming isn’t part of the curriculum at our school and I’m actually a maths teacher but we had a few talented pupils and because I’m a swim teacher, I got asked if I could take charge of them.

“We took seven teams, ranging from Year 7 to Year 13, to the regionals at Millfield and these boys were the ones that qualified 12th out of 115 teams.

“The school have let us have a minibus to take there on Saturday and because it’s just me and four boys, their parents and some of their friends are coming too.”

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